Matthew Mitcham

Matthew Mitcham
Personal information
Full name	Matthew Mitcham
Nickname(s)	Matt
Country represented	Australia
Date of birth	2 March 1988 (1988-03-02) (age 22)
Place of birth	Brisbane
Residence	Sydney
Height	1.74 metres (5 ft 9 in)
Event(s)	1 m, 3 m, 5 m, 7 m, 10 m
Club	Abbotsleigh Diving Club NSW, Perfect 10 diving
Former synchro partner(s)	Scott Robertson (3 m)
Head coach(es)	Chava Sobrino
Medal record Olympic Games Competitor for  Australia Gold 2008 Beijing 10 m Platform World Championships Bronze 2009 Rome 1 m Springboard

Matthew Mitcham, OAM (born 2 March 1988 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) is an Australian diver. He is the 2008 Olympic champion in the 10 m platform, having received the highest single-dive score in Olympic history. He is the first Australian male to win an Olympic gold medal in diving since Dick Eve at the 1924 Summer Olympics, and one of few openly gay athletes at the 2008 Summer Olympics.^[1]

Career

Mitcham originally competed as a trampoline gymnast. He was discovered by Wang Tong Xiang, a coach at the Australian Institute of Sport Diving Program, while at the Chandler Aquatic Centre in Brisbane's suburbs, and continued with both diving and trampolining for several years.

As a trampolinist, Mitcham represented Australia at the World Junior Championships in 1999 and 2001, winning the double mini-tramp event. He also competed at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in 2003, finishing sixth.

From 2002 through 2004, Mitcham was a national junior champion in diving, winning the events in which he competed. Mitcham competed at the 2002 World Junior Diving Championships, where he placed 11th in the 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) springboard, 5th in the 3 m and 16th in the 10 m platform. In 2004, he won the silver medals in the 1 m, 3 m synchronised, and 10 m platform events at the World Junior Championships. At the 2004 Junior Nationals, he won the 1 m, 3 m, and 10 m and 3 m synchro titles. At the 2004 Olympic Trials, he placed 3rd on the 3 m and 10 m individual events, 2nd on the 3 m and 10 m synchro events, and did not qualify for the Olympic team. In 2005, Mitcham won his first senior national title. He competed at the Australian Olympic Youth Festival, where he won the silver medal in the 1 m with a score of 508.35, and won the 3 m, 10 m and 3 m synchro (with Scott Robertson) titles with scores of 565, 555.8, and 316.23 respectively. At the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, he placed 12th on the 10 m platform with a score of 560.73.

In 2006, Mitcham competed in the German Grand Prix event, placing 16th on the 3 m and 6th on the 10 m, and at the US Grand Prix at Fort Lauderdale, placing 8th on the 3m springboard. At the Canada Cup he placed 26th on the 3 m and won the bronze medal on the 10 m platform. He represented Australia at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, where he competed in the 1 m, 3 m, and 10 m events. He placed 4th in the 3 m and the 3 m synchro with Robertson, and 5th on the 1 m and 10 m events.

Taking a break from the sport in 2006, he returned in 2007 and started to train under current coach Chava Sobrino at the New South Wales Institute of Sport. In 2008 Mitcham won the 1 m, 3 m and 10 m individual events at the Australian Nationals. Later that year he won the 2008 Diving Grand Prix event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.^[2]

2008 Summer Olympics

Mitcham at the 2009 Mardi Gras, Sydney

Mitcham represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 10 m platform and the 3 m springboard events. He placed 16th on the 3 m springboard and did not qualify for the final. He qualified in second position for the semi-final and final of the 10 m platform event. After experiencing mixed success in his first five dives in the final, Mitcham entered the final round of dives in second place, 34 points behind Chinese diver Zhou Lüxin.^[3] After Zhou performed his worst dive of the final and scored 74.80, Mitcham still needed to score 107.30, a very high score on the platform, to win the gold.^[3] However, his near-perfect final dive drew four perfect 10 scores from judges and achieved a score of 112.10, the highest single-dive score in Olympic history.^[4] He finished with an overall score of 537.95 to defeat Zhou, who finished with an overall score of 533.15, to win Australia's second diving medal of the Games. His win prevented China from claiming a clean-sweep of all diving gold medals at the Olympic Games.^[5] He is the first Australian male to win an Olympic gold medal in diving since Dick Eve in 1924.^[6]

Mitcham's medal was followed by the Australia Post issuing a 50 cent stamp of him. His stamp was issued on 26 September 2008, one day after his victory.

Personal life

Mitcham leading the 2009 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

Mitcham was born in Brisbane but lives and trains in Sydney. He publicly came out as gay in 2008 to the Sydney Morning Herald when they were profiling Olympic hopefuls.^[8] During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he was also featured on the cover of the international gay publication The Advocate^[9] in August 2008 and March 2009, as well as the cover of Ausralian gay publication DNA. Mitcham's boyfriend, Lachlan Fletcher, attended the 2008 Summer Olympic Games as a spectator. His trip was sponsored by a grant from Johnson & Johnson's Athlete Family Support Program.^[8]

Mitcham gained media coverage as the first Australian to compete at the Olympic Games as openly gay at the time of his competition, though this was inaccurate, as Mathew Helm, who competed in the same event, was also out before the Olympics began.^[10][11] Other notable gay Australian Olympians include Ji Wallace, who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the inaugural trampoline event; however, he came out after the Games.^[12]

Prior to his 10m platform win, Mitcham was reported to be one of only eleven openly gay athletes competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, out of 11,028 athletes from 204 countries.^[13][14][15]

Mitcham has said when asked to comment on his coming out: “I don’t see sexuality as influencing my beliefs or opinions or perceptions of anybody, whether they’re gay, straight, bi, trans, experimental, I don’t care. I see it as a very uninfluential factor in people.” Mitcham has said that after the Beijing Olympics, he received many letters from gay teenagers, "and that was really nice, really humbling".^[16]

Sponsorship

Despite his diving achievements, Mitcham struggled to attract corporate sponsorship. In the The Adocate, an editor said, "What's a guy to do when he's got the gold, the fame, the man - but no big-time endorsements?" In 2009, Mitcham secured financial support from the Australian telecommunications provider Telstra.^[17]

In March 2010, Matthew Mitcham was announced as the new face of Funky Trunks. He will appear on advertising campaigns across Australia, Europe and the United States as the brand rapidly expands into international markets.^[18][19][20] He is also a spokesman and "swimwear ambassador" for the brand.^[21]

Other appearances

• In 2009, Matthew Mitcham was the Chief of Parade of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras^[22] after being declared the 2008 Australian Sports Performer of the Year.
• In February and March 2010, Mitcham appeared in the second season of Rexona Greatest Athlete Australia reality television series in which 8 of Australia's most popular sports athletes compete in 8 episodes in various challenges to win the "best athlete" award.
• He also announced taking part in the Cologne 2010 Gay Games in Germany. He was seen promoting the Games.^[23] The Gay Games VIII will be held in August 2010. The event will feature 35 sports, as well as community and cultural events.

References

External links

• Official site
• Australian Olympic Team profile
• 2008 Olympics profile